GENER8ION and Yung Lean Reach Hot 100 With 'Storm II' After VMAs
French producer GENER8ION and Swedish rapper Yung Lean have reached the US singles chart together. “Storm II” debuts at No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100, the weekly ranking of the most popular songs in the United States, on the chart dated Oct. 17. It is a first Hot 100 entry for GENER8ION and a first lead credit for Yung Lean, according to Billboard.
The timing points to the MTV Video Music Awards. The pair performed “Storm II” at the ceremony on Sept. 27. Streams jumped immediately after.
Data from Luminate, the company that tracks music consumption for Billboard’s charts, shows US chart-eligible streams rose 369% from 508,000 in the Sept. 18-24 tracking week to 2.4 million in Sept. 25-Oct. 1. The lift continued into the next tracking frame. The song then drew 3.1 million chart-eligible US streams in Oct. 2-8, up 30% on the previous week.
“Storm II” was released in April via Iconoclast Music. It gave GENER8ION his first Billboard chart entry of any kind in May. Now in its fourth total week on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Billboard’s ranking for dance and electronic tracks, it has climbed to a new high of No. 2.
For GENER8ION, who also records as Surkin, the Hot 100 debut follows earlier high-profile remix work recognised by Billboard, including official remixes of Usher’s “Scream” in 2012 and Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap” in 2014. Yung Lean broke through on Billboard’s charts in 2022 when “Ginseng Strip 2002” reached the top 50 of the Billboard Global 200, the worldwide songs chart. His only previous Hot 100 entry came as a featured artist alongside Dave Chappelle on Travis Scott’s “Parasail,” which reached No. 53 in 2023.
The visual side helped drive attention. The seven-minute “Storm II” video was choreographed by Damien Jalet. It earned four VMA nominations: video of the year, best choreography, best direction and best long-form video. The song is the second half of “Storm,” the duo’s surprise video of the year nominee, according to Billboard.
It was also a VMAs debut. The pair took the ceremony stage for the first time to give “Storm II” the world premiere performance organised for the show.
What makes this stand out is the slow build. Six months passed between the April release and the Hot 100 debut. One televised performance changed that in a week.
